Sick of Scrabble? Bored of Boggle? We’ve discovered a fun little word game that will challenge you in new ways, and it’s not even made by EA and Hasbro. It’s called Word Genie, and we recommend it to any sleuthing wordsmiths.

The goal is simple: Advance as far as you can through a series of challenges, spelling out words from a grid of 25 letters. Unlike Boggle, the letters don’t have to be connected, and sometimes finding simple three-letter words just isn’t enough. You’ll also have to spell out, for example, five five-letter words that start with ‘V’.

Now use it in a sentence.

Each round has a ten-minute timer, so you’re always racing against the clock. On the easier difficulty level and first few levels, you can probably race through your list of challenges with plenty of time to spare. But later on, you’ll be frantically spelling words, saving the letters you need, and hoping for enough new letters to beat each challenge in time.

Word Genie doesn’t offer much in terms of visuals or variety (two valid V-words, by the way.) It’s just one simple game with increasingly harder challenges. A poorly-drawn genie will appear between levels and chide you when you try to spell dirty words (which are acceptable, by the way), but Word Genie is not about the flashy production values.

You’ve never had a friend like me.

We were impressed with how fun the game can be, especially on later stages, and we only wish that Word Genie contained online high scores so we could compete against our friends. Plus, it could use some more modes to provide a bit more value for your money.

Despite a few flaws, Word Genie is still a very fun indie word game. We can easily imagine losing an hour or two on the daily commute to beating our own high score, making words and racing against the clock. Definitely give it a try if you’ve got a knack for word games.

AppSpy takes a look at AG Drive in their latest video review. Giving it top marks and only dinging it for not having multiplayer. If you like “swooshy swoopy futuristic racers” this one might be the one.